Related

“The hard-working men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Canadian International Development Agency are committed to promoting freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law each and every day,” Baird said.

“For some time, the many challenges of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, also known as Rights and Democracy, have been well publicized. It is time to put these past challenges behind us and move forward.”

Members of the group’s staff and board of directors were unaware of the pending cuts when contacted Tuesday morning and we’re reluctant to comment until they’d learned more about it. Fighting within the group bubbled after the government appointed several new board members who raised concerns about grants that were critical of Israel’s human rights record.

Shortly after a particularly heated board meeting in 2010, the organization’s former president Remy Beauregard died of heart failure.

An audit and private investigation into the dismissal of three directors was ordered after his death.

It identified a number of structural issues and raised questions about some $1.5 million in subsidies.

Established by Parliament in 1988 with a mandate to promote human rights and democratic institutions around the world, the group counts on the federal government for about 80 per cent of its budget — more than $11 million last year.

While there was no mention of Rights and Democracy in last week’s budget, it did indicate the government would “examine its participation in some international organizations to ensure that they are relevant to Canada’s interests and priorities.”